_An_ ADDRESS _to_ YUNG GENTLEMEN.
At a time of life when the passions are lively and strong, when the
reezoning powers scarcely begin to be exercised, and the judgement iz
not yet ripened by experience and obzervation, it iz of infinit
consequence that yung persons should avail themselves of the advice of
their frends. It iz tru that the maxims of old age are sometimes too
rigorous to be relished by the yung; but in general they are to be
valued az the lessons of infallible experience, and ought to be the
guides of youth. The opinions here offered to your consideration hav not
the advantage of great age to giv them weight, nor do they claim the
authority of long experience: But they are formed from _some_
experience, with much reeding and reflection; and so far az a zeel for
your welfare and respectability in future life merits your regard, so
far this address haz a claim to your notis.
The first thing recommended to your attention iz, the care of your helth
and the prezervation of your bodily constitution. In no particular iz
the neglect of parents and guardians more obvious and fatal, than in
suffering the bodies of their children to grow without care. My remark
applies in particular to thoze who design their children to get a living
without manual labor. Let yung persons then attend to facts, which are
always before their eyes.
Nature seldom fails to giv both sexes the materials of a good
constitution; that iz, a body complete in all its parts. But it depends
mostly on persons themselves to manage theze materials, so az to giv
them strength and solidity.
The most criticcal period of life, in this respect, iz the age of
puberty, which iz usually between thirteen and seventeen, or eighteen.
Before this period, you are very much in the power of parents or
masters, and if they wish to see you strong and robust, they wil feed
you with coarse substantial food of eezy digestion. But at fourteen
yeers old, yung persons are capable of exercising their reezon, in some
degree, and ought to be instructed in the mode of living, best
calculated to secure helth and long life. It iz obzervable that yung
persons of both sexes grow tall very rapidly about the age of thirteen,
fourteen, fifteen or sixteen; but they do not acquire muscular strength
in du proportion. It should then be the bizziness of yung persons to
assist nature, and strengthen the growing frame by athletic exercises.
Thoze persons who leed a sedentary life, should practis some amusement
which requires considerable exertion of the lims; az running, foot ball,
quoit; taking care not to injure themselves by too violent exertion; for
this would defeet the salutary purpose of such exercizes. But the
exercize I would most recommend, iz _fencing_; for the art itself iz
highly useful at times, and the practice tends more to render the body
firm and vigorous than almost any exercize whatever. It braces the
muscles of the arm, spreds the brest, opens the chest to giv the lungs
play; an effect of great consequence to persons about the age of
puberty. For, az waz before obzerved, persons of this age, shoot up very
fast; the body grows tall, but narrow; the mass of flesh and blood iz
increesed much faster than the tone of the vessels and muscular
strength; the chest iz two narrow for the lungs to perform their office,
and the blood vessels hav not sufficient elasticity to produce a brisk
free circulation; the system iz often too week to carry on the necessary
secretions of the juices; and the consequence of the whole iz, an
obstructed circulation produces ulcers upon the lungs, which bring on a
decay, or some infirmities of body, which last for many yeers, and not
unfrequently for life.
To avoid theze ills, much exercise of the arms and body iz not only
useful, but necessary; and when it iz not the lot of yung persons to
labor, in agriculture or mekanic arts, some laborious amusement should
be constantly and daily pursued az a substitute, and none iz preferable
to fencing. A fencing skool iz perhaps az necessary an institution in a
college, az a professorship of mathematics; for yung men usually enter
college about the age of puberty; and often leev a laborious occupation,
to commence a sedentary life, at the very time when labor or other
exercize iz the most necessary to giv firmness and vigor to their
constitutions. In consequence of this change and an academic life, they
often run up into long, slender, effeminate bodies, which a slight cold
may throw into a consumption; or by intense application to books, add,
to a debilitated frame of body, a week nervous system, which keeps them
always dying, tho it may not end life til old age.
Dancing iz an excellent amusement for yung peeple, especially for thoze
of sedentary occupations. Its excellence consists in exciting a
cheerfulness of the mind, highly essential to helth; in bracing the
muscles of the body, and in producing copious perspiration. Az the two
first effects are very visibly beneficial, they are the subject of
common obzervation; but the last, which iz perhaps the most generally
beneficial, iz rarely mentioned.
Experience haz led me to the following ideas on this subject. Our bodies
are so constituted that a large portion of the juices should be thrown
off by insensible perspiration; nor can the process be abated without
danger, nor wholly obstructed without occasioning diseese. The body must
perspire, or must be out of order. A violent cold iz a sudden
obstruction of the process, which throws the matter, intended for
evacuation thro the pores of the skin, back upon the _intestines_,
taking the word, not in a tecknical, but in its original extended sense.
All that iz necessary to cure a cold, which iz not attended with
symptoms of inflamation, iz to open the pores of the body; which may be
done by bracing, az by drinking cold water, which excites circulation by
its tonic power; or by relaxing the system, az by the warm bath and warm
teas. The first wil answer, where the body haz vigor enough to giv the
tonic its full effect; but iz not so efficacious, nor so generally
practicable az the last. It iz not so eezy to force thro a wall, az to
open a gate.
The common house-wifely remedies, consisting of butter or other oily
substances, mixed with spirits, usually hav no effect upon a cold, or a
bad one. Flannel, warm teas, or simple warm water, hav the best effect
in relaxing; but if they fail of producing a perspiration, the patient
should hav recourse to exercise. Dancing in a warm room, or other
violent exercise, wil generally throw a person into a copious swet in a
few minutes; and this, two or three times repeeted, wil usually releev
the person, however obstinate the cold. If every thing else fails, the
warm bath should be resorted to az an almost infallible remedy.
But there iz another species of obstructed perspiration more dangerous
perhaps than sudden colds, because less perceptible; I meen, that which
proceeds from a week habit of body. Whenever the tone of the vessels iz
lost, the circulation of the blood becumes languid, the animal heet iz
diminished, and the system haz not strength sufficient to throw off the
perspirable matter. The consequence iz, the skin becumes dry and rigid,
and the person usually feels a dull pain in hiz hed and the back part of
hiz neck. Wimen, literary men, clerks, &c. are most expozed to theze
symptoms. The remedy for them iz, free perspiration; but the most
effectual remedy iz dancing, or other vigorous exercise, which
increeses, at the same time, animal heet and the tone of the vessels.
Dancing indeed unites to theze, the other advantage of cheerfulness and
good spirits, which iz of singular use to persons accustomed to close
application to bizziness or contemplation. The only caution to be
obzerved iz, not to go into the cold air, without considerable
additional clothing.
In cases where persons cannot hav recourse to dancing or other exercize
in a warm room, the warm bath may be uzed to great advantage. At first
thought, one would imagin, that the cold bath should be prescribed for
giving tone to a week system; but on reflection, this would appeer to be
generally, tho not always hazardous. The truth iz, a general relaxation
of the body checks perspiration; and the first effect of cold, in such
cases, iz to brace the exterior parts of the body, and throw the
offending matter, lodged in the skin by the debility of the system, back
upon the lungs, or other interior parts. If the system haz strength
enough, or can receev enough by the operation of cold, to force open the
pores and produce a copious perspiration, the cold bath wil hav an
excellent effect. But when the person iz of a week frame, the experiment
iz extremely dangerous. The safest remedy iz the warm bath, which
remooves the obstructing matter by a gentle relaxation of the surface;
thus enabling the vessels to recuver their tone, in a degree, and keep
up a brisk circulation. The warm bath then iz the most safe and
efficacious remedy for obstructed perspiration, occasioned by debility;
and this iz an evil to which all sedentary peeple are expozed, and by
which most of them suffer.
I hav been often suprized that the moderns hav so generally neglected
the meens of prezerving helth, which were uzed by the ancients. A little
attention to the structure of the human body, and the effect of heet and
cold upon it, led the ancients to the obvious and almost infallable
meens of garding themselves from diseeze. Their method waz to bathe
almost daily; and then oil their bodies. By bathing, they kept their
perspiration free, and their bodies of course, in vigor and clenly; and
by the use of oil, they secured the body from the fatal effects of
sudden cold. In the later ages of Rome, warm baths indeed became a
luxury, and were uzed to excess; but this waz only an abuse of a good
thing, the excellent effects of which had been experienced for ages. The
neglect of the same meens, of preventing diseese, haz obliged the
modern to hav recourse to physic, a substitute, more expensiv and
trublesome, and not always effectual.[167]
[167] It iz evident, from the silence of all ancient
monuments, that the heeling art waz not cultivated, and
scarcely known among the old Romans. For several ages from
the bilding of Rome, there iz hardly any mention made of a
physician. Pliny relates, that Rome flurished, six hundred
yeers, without physicians; that iz, the profession waz not
honorable, being confined to servants or other low karacters.
In Seneca's time, many of theze had acquired estates by the
bizziness; but they were stil held in no estimation. "Bona in
arte medendi humillimisque quibus contingere videmus." After
the conquest of Greece and Asia, the manners of the Romans
were corrupted by the luxuries of the eest; diseeses
multiplied, and the practice of physic became more necessary
and more reputable; but the art of surgery waz not separated
from that of medicin, til the times of the emperors.
Whether in bizziness or amusement, let your whole conduct be guided by
temperance. Are you students? Eet moderately, and let your food be of
the nutritiv kind, but not oily, high seesoned and indigestible. Drink
but little, or rather no distilled liquors; wine and fermented liquors
are much to be preferred. A good cup of tee, iz sometimes a cordial;
coffee may be uzed freely; but the constant use of hot liquors seldom
fails to debilitate the system and impair the digestiv powers.
Whether you reed or rite, accustom yourselves to stand at a high desk,
rather than indulge an indolent habit of sitting, which always weekens,
and sometimes disfigures the body. The neerer you can keep every part of
the body to an eezy strait posture, the more equable wil be the
circulation of the fluids; and in order to giv them the most
unconstrained flow to the extremities of the lims, it iz very useful to
loosen thoze parts of dress that bind the lims closely.
There iz another kind of temperance which I would warmly recommend; that
iz, temperance in study. Little does a helthy robust yuth reflect upon
the delicate texture of the nervous system, which iz immediately
affected by close mental application. The full fed muscular man may
spurn the caution, that warns him against the danger of hypocondriacs;
but it iz next to impossible that the hard student, who clossets himself
seven or eight hours a day, in deep meditation, should escape the
deplorable evil, which makes men valetudinarians for life, without hope
of a radical cure, and with the wretched consolation of being
perpetually laughed at.
Four hours of uninterrupted study in a day iz generally sufficient to
furnish the mind with az many ideas az can be retained, methodized and
applied to practice; and it iz wel if one half of what are run over in
this time are not lost. It may sometimes be necessary to study or reed
_more_ hours in a day; but it wil az often be found useful to reed
_less_.
When you exercize at any diversion, or go into company, forget your
studies, and giv up yourselves entirely to the amusement. It wil do you
no good to leev your books behind, unless you dismiss your attention or
train of thinking. Attend to experience. You find it very fateeging to
stand, sit or even to lie in one fixed posture, for any length of time,
and change affords releef. The same iz tru of the mind. It iz necessary,
if I may indulge the expression, to change the pozition of the mind;
that iz, vary the train of thought; for by a variety of ideas, the mind
iz releeved, in the same degree az the body by a change of posture.
When you reed, always endevor to reed with some particular object. You
wil find many books that ought to be red in course; but in general when
you take up a treetis upon any science, or a volum of history, without a
view to inform yourself of some _particular_ in that wurk, you are not
likely to retain what you reed. The object iz too general; the mind iz
not capable of embracing the whole. For instance, if you reed Hume's
England in course, with design to acquaint yourself with the whole
story, you wil find, at the end of your labor, that you are able to
recollect only a few of the most remarkable occurrences; the greatest
part of the history haz escaped you. But if you confine yourself to
_one point of history_ at a time, for example, the life and policy of
Alfred, or the account of Mary, queen of Scots, and reed what every
author you can lay your hand on, haz said upon that subject, comparing
their different accounts of it, you wil impress the history upon the
mind, so az not to be eezily effaced. Law students should attend to
theze remarks.
There iz another kind of temperance of more consequence than thoze
mentioned, viz. temperance in plezure: For to all the personal evils of
an excessiv indulgence of the animal appetite, we may add innumerable
evils of a moral and social nature. No intercourse should take place
between the sexes, til the body haz attained to full strength and
maturity. In this respect, ancient barbarous nations hav set an example,
that ought to make moderns blush for their effeminacy of manners, and
their juvenile indulgences. The old Germans accounted it shameful and
disreputable for yung men to hav any intercourse with the other sex,
before the age of twenty.[168] To this continence were they much
indetted for their muscular bodies, their helth and longevity. But such
an abstinence from plezure waz not maintained by law; the Germans knew
that positiv prohibitions would be ineffectual to restrain this
indulgence; they had recourse to the only certain method; they made it
_dishonorable_. How different iz the case in modern times! So far iz
debauchery from being scandalous, that it iz frequently the boast of men
in the first offices of state; and a karacter of licentiousness iz
little or no objection in a candidate for preferment.[169]
[168] Qui diutissime impuberes permanserunt, maximam inter
suos ferunt laudem: Hôc ali staturam, ali vires, nervosque
confirmari putant. Intra annum vero xx feminæ notitiam
habuisse, in turpissimis habent rebus.---- Cesar De Bel. Gal.
lib. 6. 19.
[169] The ancients were wiser than the moderns in many
respects; and particularly in restraining certain vices by
_opinion_, rather than by _positiv injunctions_. Duelling and
profane swearing are prohibited by the laws of most
countries; yet penalties hav no effect in preventing the
crimes, whilst they are not followed by loss of reputation.
Vices which do not immediately affect the lives, honor or
property of men, which are not _mala in se_, which are eezily
conceeled, or which are supported by a principle of honor or
reputation, are not restrainable by law. Under some of theze
description fall, duelling, profane swearing, gambling, &c.
To check such vices, public opinion must render them
infamous.[j] Thoze who hav the distribution of honors and
offices, may restrain theze vices by making the commission of
them an insuperable bar to preferment. Were the _Prezident_
and the executivs of the several states, to be az particular
in enquiring whether candidates for offices are given to
gambling, swearing or debaucheries; whether they hav ever
given or receeved a challenge, or betrayed an innocent
female; az they are in enquiring whether they are men of
abilities and integrity; and would they, with undeviating
resolution, proscribe from their favor and their company,
every man whoze karacter, in theze particulars, iz not
unimpeechable, they would diminish the number of vices,
exclude some wholly from society, banish others from genteel
company, and confine their contagion to the herd of mankind.
But where iz the man of elevated rank, of great talents, of
unshaken firmness, of heroic virtue, to begin the glorious
reformation? America may now furnish the man, but where shall
hiz successor be found?
[j] See Vattels Law of Nations, b. I. ch. 13.
Oppozed to passion and to false pride, caution wil perhaps be
unavailing. But men who wish for permanent happiness, should be
persuaded to take the meens for securing it. Wil you then run the risk
of erly indulgence in illicit plezure? Some of you _may_ escape the
evils which generally follow; but the chances are against you. In nine
cases of ten, you wil destroy the vigor of your bodies, and thus impair
the ability of enjoyment by excess; or what iz an additional evil, you
wil contract diseese. What iz the consequence? Eether your taste for the
vilest plezures wil grow into habit and make abandoned rakes of you,
averse to the innocent enjoyments of the married life, and of course bad
members of society; or you wil perhaps marry amiable wimen, with your
strength and helth impaired, and your minds debauched, fickle, prone to
jelousy. In this case, you are neether secure of your partners
affections, nor wil you be likely to know the valu of their virtues.
Having broken over the barriers of virtue, you are forever liable to
stray; and the probability iz, you destroy the happiness of your wives,
and the peece of your families. Perhaps with some art, and the forgiving
temper of your wives, you may conceel the family discord, and the
wretched state of your minds, from a censorious world; pride,
reputation, every motiv would urge you to this precaution; but iz not
this a poor substitute for happiness? A poor consolation for the
multiplied evils that follow, in an endless train, from the unreezonable
and criminal indulgences of a few yeers? You may be assured also that a
woman of good principles cannot feel a pure satisfaction, in the company
even of a reformed husband, when she reflects, az she frequently wil,
that he haz wasted hiz helth and substance upon the vilest of her sex.
My yung frends, it iz idle, it iz weekness and folly to expect any kind
of happiness or plezure, which shal indemnify you for the trubble of
seeking it, except in the pursuance of the principles which morality
prescribes. Whenever you pursu an object, at the expense of any moral
principle; when the attainment of your end must injure the person, the
property, the reputation or the feelings of one child of Adam, the
acquisition of that object wil not giv you happiness; you are pursuing a
fantom. This leeds me to say something on one of the most hanous crimes
a man can commit, and which the laws of society cannot or at leest do
not punish; that iz, seduction.
Fashion, which iz often founded on moral propriety, and oftener on
political convenience, iz sometimes an enemy to both; and public
opinion, enlisted in the cauze of vice, iz a greater scurge to society
than war or pestilence. It iz one of the evils, or rather of the curses
of civilization, that certain crimes, az malignant in their nature, and
az fatal in their consequence, az murder and robbery, becume
fashionable, and to a certain degree, reputable. Of this kind, iz
deliberate seduction. It iz az malignant in its nature az murder, for
it iz accompanied with the same aggravation, malice pretense, or a
premeditated design: It iz az fatal to society; for reputation iz az
deer az life; and the wretched victims of deception, if they lay violent
hands on themselves, or linger out a life of disgrace, are equally
murdered, equally lost to society. And the only reezon why the seducer
and the murderer hav not been placed on a footing by the laws of
society, must be, the difficulty of proof, or of ascertaining the
degrees of gilt, where there iz a possibility or a presumtion of assent
on the part of the woman.
There are however certain instances of this crime which are az capable
of proof az, arson, burglary or murder; and why the laws of a state,
which prohibit under severe penalties, the taking or giving more than
six per cent. interest on the loan of money, even on the fairest
contract, should yet permit the seducer to take another's reputation, to
doom to indelible infamy the helpless female, whoze reputation iz all
her portion, iz one of thoze problems in society, which the philosopher
wil impute to human imperfection, and the Kristian number among the
inscrutable mysteries of providence.
But I am not addressing legislators; I am reezoning with individuals.
Waving the baseness of the crime, let us attend to its consequences in
families and society. You wil doutless acknowlege, for I do not see how
you can deny, that when you deliberately commit a crime that affects
your nabor, you explicitly admit that your nabor haz an equal right to
commit the same crime against yourselves; for I presume no man wil
arrogate to himself an exclusiv privilege of being a villan.
You attempt then to seduce the wife, the sister, or the dawter of your
frend; but hav you none of theze relations? Hav you not a wife, a
sister, a dawter, whoze reputation iz deer to you; whoze honor you would
die to defend? You hav attacked the honor of your nabor; haz he not the
same right to assail your family, in the same delicate point? But if you
has none of theze neer connections, hav you no female frend whoze
reputation iz deer to you? Now by attempting the honor of any woman, you
wage war with the whole human race; you break down the barriers which
nature and society hav established to gard your _own_ family and frends,
and leev _their_ honor and happiness, and consequently your _own_,
expozed to the intreegs of every unprincipled retch: You even invite an
attempt upon your family and frends; you beet a challenge, and bid
defiance to any man who haz the spirit to revenge the rongs of the
helpless. Theze are serious considerations, in which men of principle
and of no principle are equally interested; for an abandoned rake iz
usually az fond of hiz own and hiz family's honor, az the man of the
chastest life.
Mingle with your superiors in age and wizdom, whenever you can do it
with propriety. If your parents are wize, they wil associate with you az
much az possible in your amusements; they wil be cheerful and facetious,
and thus make you az happy az you wish to be at home. A morose crabbed
old man iz not inviting company for the yung and sprightly; and you
ought rather to shun the illnatured, if possible. But whenever your
parents are of a cheerful dispozition, and luv their children, they make
the most agreeable and most useful companions. They wil find amusements
for you at home, and you wil be happier there than any where else. If
your parents are thus dispozed to make themselves your principal
companions, always indulge their inclination. You wil thus avoid the
contagion of vicious company, you wil form a habit of contentment and
satisfaction at home; and remember, if you do not find happiness there,
you wil never find much satisfaction abroad.
In choosing society however, be careful not to push yourself into
company. Yung men are often impatient of the restraints which modesty
and decorum impoze upon them. They are anxious to associate with thoze
of greater age and rank than themselves; and expect more notis than
mankind in general suppoze they dezerv. This proceeds from the ambition
and fire of youth; the motivs I beleev to be often innocent and
laudable; the ambition therefore should be guverned, rather than
repressed. A little experience wil dictate patience and a modest
deportment, which, with yeers and information, wil always ensure
respectability. I once knew a man of twenty two chagrined even to
petulence, becauze he could not be admitted a trustee of a college. I
waz surprized at hiz severe remarks on the venerable body of gentlemen
who rejected him. He thought himself a man of more science than some of
the corporation; and therefore better qualified to direct a literary
institution. Admit the fact, that he excelled in scientific attainments,
yet the vexation he felt at hiz disappointment waz proof enough that he
waz destitute of the first requisits in the overseers of yuth,
_coolness_ and _judgement_.
In the world, avoid every species of affectation, and be az fashionable
az convenience wil warrant. Yet never be the first to invent novelty,
nor run to excess in imitation. This advice, _to be fashionable_, should
however be qualified, and restrained to things indifferent, in point of
morality. Az the moral karacter of men does not depend on the shape of
their garments, it iz generally best to wear our clothes in the model
that fashion prescribes; unless your circumstances forbid, or the
fashion itself iz inconvenient: For if you are not able to afford the
expense, it iz criminal in you to follow the customs of the welthy; and
if the shape of a garment makes it uneezy upon you or cumbersome, the
fashion iz ridiculous, and none but week peeple, the common coxcombs and
butterflies of the world, wil adopt it. For this reezon follow lord
Chesterfield's maxims with great caution. His letters contain a strange
compound of the _best_ and _worst_ instructions ever given to a yung
man; indeed it would be expected of a man, whoze object waz not to make
hiz son _good_, but to make him _showy_.
Hiz lordship, I think, recommends to hiz son to wear _long nails_; in
consequence of which advice, long nails are very fashionable wherever
hiz letters are red. But a man ought to be consistent. Why did he not at
the same time recommend long beards? Both are very proper among savages,
who hav no ideas of neetness; and one would think, they should always go
together; but among civilized peeple, both are equally slovenly. Hiz
lordship givs an excellent reezon for hiz advice; that mekanics pare
their nails, and _gentlemen_ ought to be distinguished from _laborers_.
Why did not he add, that az mekanics walk on two feet, gentlemen, for
sake of distinction, ought to walk on all fours? But hiz lordship had
better reezons for hiz advice. Long nails are a most commodious
substitute, or at leest furnish a reddy alleviation of the evils arizing
from a sparing use of ivory. Besides, hiz lordship waz a courtier, fond
of royal examples, &c. He found a princely one in the Assyrian monark,
who, when he waz a beest, wore hiz nails in the same manner.
Nebuchadnezzer however waz under the direction of a divine impulse; an
authority that hiz lordship could not claim for _all_ hiz injunctions
and maxims.
Never let fashion blind you to convenience and congruity. Do not
introduce foreign customs, without reezon, or by the halves. The French
feed themselves with forks, uzing knives merely to cut their meet;
therefore knives with sharp points, are for them the most convenient.
But it iz really laughable to see the Americans adopting the use of
sharp pointed knives, without the practice of feeding themselves with
forks. They do not see the particular convenience of the custom in
France, where it originated; but it iz _the fashion to uze them_, and
this iz all they think of. They are however well punished for their
servile apishness, especially when they are hungry; for a man may az wel
feed himself with a bodkin, az with a knife of the present fashion.
Be equally careful of affectation in the use of language. Uze words that
are most common and generally understood. Remember that sublimity and
elegance do not consist principally in words; az the modern stile of
writing would make us beleev. Sublimity consists in grand and elevated
ideas; and elegance iz most generally found in a plain, neet, chaste
phraseology. In pronunciation be very cautious of imitating the stage,
where indeed nature _should be represented_, but where in fact we find
too much strutting, mouthing, rant, and every kind of affectation. The
modern pronunciation of our language on the English stage iz, beyond
mezure, affected and ridiculous. The change of _t_, _d_ and _s_ into
_ch_, _j_ and _sh_, in such words az _nature_, _education_,
_superstition_, originated in the theatrical mouthing of words; and iz,
in language, what the stage-strut iz in walking. The practice haz indeed
spred from the stage among our polite speekers, who hav adopted it, az
peeple do other fashions, without knowing why. Were it a matter of
indifference, like the shape of a hat, I would recommend it to your
imitation; but I hav cleerly prooved in another place,[170] that the
practice iz not vindicable on any good principles; that on the contrary,
it materially injures the language, both in orthography and the melody
of speeking. There iz such a thing az tru and false taste, and the
latter az often directs fashion, az the former. The _nachure_ and
_edjucation_ of modern times are to purity of language, what red fethers
and yellow ribbons are to elegance in dress; and could the practice be
represented with a pencil, it would be az boldly caricatured, az the
enormous hed-dresses of 1774.
[170] See my Dissertations on the English Language, 4.
Do not adopt such phrases az _averse from_, _agreeably to_, _going
past_, and other modern alterations of the usual idiom; for they are
gross violations of the principles of the language, az might be eezily
prooved, were this the place. If you are a lawyer, do not confound such
terms, az, _witness_, _testimony_ and _evidence_, calling a _witness_,
an _evidence_. _Witness_ iz the person testifying; _testimony_ iz what
he declares in court; and _evidence_ iz the effect of that testimony in
producing conviction. Do not confound such words az, _genius_ and
_capacity_, or _sense_, _lerning_ and _knowlege_. _Genius_ iz the power
of _invention_; _capacity_, the power of _receeving_ ideas. _Sense_ iz
the faculty of perception; _lerning_ iz what iz obtained in _books_;
_knowlege_ iz what iz acquired by _observation_.
Attach yourselves to bizziness in the erly part of life. Shun idle
dissipated karacters az you would the plague. Listen to nature and
reezon, and draw just ideas of things from theze pure sources; otherwize
you wil imbibe _fashionable sentiments_, than which a more fatal evil
cannot happen to you. You wil often heer bizziness condemned az drudgery
and disgrace. Despize the sentiment. Nature speeks a different language.
Nature tells you, "that she haz given you bodies, which require constant
exercize; that labor or some other exercize iz essential to helth; that
employment iz necessary to peece of mind; and industry iz the meens of
acquiring property." Nature then haz rendered _bizziness_ necessary to
_helth and happiness_, az wel az to _interest_; and when men neglect her
dictates, they are usually punished with poverty, diseeze and
retchedness. It sometimes happens that a man's ancestors hav accumulated
such an estate, that he iz wel secured from _poverty_; but the very
estate he possesses, iz the meens of entailing upon him diseeze and all
its consequential evils: For a rich man iz strongly tempted to be lazy;
and indolence, by debilitating the animal system, destroys the power of
enjoyment. Besides, a man of eezy circumstances iz very apt to looze the
virtu of self denial; he indulges hiz appetite too freely; he becumes an
epicure in eeting, and perhaps a bakkanalian; he iz then a slave of the
worst kind, a slave to hiz own desires, and hiz faithful services to
himself are rewarded with the gout.
In addition to this, he may squander away hiz estate; and then he iz
poor indeed! For a man who iz bred in affluence, seldom haz the
resolution or the knowlege requisit to repair a broken fortune. The way
to _keep an estate_, iz to lern in youth how to _acquire one_; and the
way to _enjoy_ an estate, iz to be constantly in some bizziness which
shal find employment for the faculties of the mind. Idleness and plezure
fateeg az soon az bizziness; and indeed when bizziness haz becume
habitual, it iz the first of plezures.
In forming a matrimonial connection, bridle fancy, and reduce it to the
control of reezon. You wil perhaps be in luv at sixteen; but remember,
you cannot rely on the continuance of the passion. At this erly period
of life, a man's passions are too violent to last; he iz in raptures and
ecstacy; but _raptures and ecstacy_ never continu _thro life_. While a
man talks of raptures and paradise on erth, he iz not fit to be married;
for hiz passion, or rather hiz frenzy, warps hiz judgement; he iz az
unqualified to form a just estimate of a woman's karacter, az a blind
man to judge of colors. The probability iz, in all such cases, that a
man wil make a bad choice; at leest the chances are ten to one against
him. Before a man marries, he should liv long enuf to experience the
fallacy of hope, and to moderate hiz expectations down to real life. He
wil then meet with fewer disappointments, and be better prepared to
realize the happiness that iz within hiz power.
If you feel a _violent_ passion for a young lady, the chance iz that the
first opportunity you hav, you wil discloze it, and assure her you are
dying for her. Should passion hurry you to such a declaration, before
you hav much acquaintance with her, and before you hav, by your
attentions, made some favorable impressions on her hart, you may be sure
of a repulse; for your sudden professions frighten the lady, and ladies
are never frightened into luv. A widow wil sometimes surrender to the
most unexpected attack; but yung coy maidens are to be taken only by
gradual approaches. To ensure success, take the advice of a very
sensible woman; "first be the frend, and then the luver." Be polite and
attentiv; show yourself a particular frend, for ladies are not alarmed
at professions of esteem; be neether bashful, nor discuver uncommon
solicitude; and the lady's hart wil probably be yours before she knows
it.
Do you ask, how you shal discuver the tru karacter of a woman, so az not
to be deceeved? I answer, this must depend mostly on obzervations of
your own, or of thoze that are more acquainted with the sex than
yourself. The virtues of good nature, delicacy, modest rezervedness,
prudence, &c. are discuverable only by considerable acquaintance. I
would however advize you to be cautious of connecting yourselves with
the following karacters: First, wimen who hav been accustomed to indulge
familiarities, even in company, such az kissing, playing with their
hands, and the like. Secondly, thoze who wil never be seen in the
morning; for if a lady runs out of a room, and avoids you in a morning
dress, the suspicion iz that she iz a slut, and that she iz conscious of
her unfitness to be seen. A neet woman wil never be ashamed of her
dishabille, for in this she wil show her neetness to the best advantage.
A slut may look tolerably wel in silks; but a neet woman only wil appeer
wel in a kitchen or at a brekfast table in her own family.
Thirdly, never connect yourselves with a very loquacious or fretful
woman; such a partner wil teeze you thro life. Fourthly, avoid one who
haz a slanderous tung; she wil keep your family and the naborhood in
perpetual discord. Fifthly, form no connection with a woman, who haz no
acquaintance with a kitchen. She wil trust every thing to servants, who
wil waste more than you consume; she wil not know how to reform abuses
or guvern domestics; the clothes wil be ill washed, the food wil be
badly cooked; you wil be harrassed with disorders and irregularity in
the family; and you wil be ashamed of your wife, if she iz not ashamed
of herself. A master of a vessel should not _come in at the cabin
windows_; nor should a man be placed at the hed of an army, without an
intimate knowlege of the duty of a private soldier. How then can a lady
be qualified for the care of a family, without being acquainted with
every part of domestic bizziness? Sixthly, marry, if possible, a lady of
virtu and religion; for religion iz her best gard from temptation and
the allurements of vice. At any rate, _marry_. A _married man_,
especially a _father_, iz a better citizen than a bachelor. Hiz
benevolent affections are called in to exercize in hiz family; and he iz
thus prepared to luv and to bless society in general.
No. XXX.